Yahya Abu Hammam serves as a senior leader of Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), planning operations and kidnapping Westerners in North and West Africa. Hammam has played a key role in perpetuating AQIM’s terrorist activities in West Africa and Mali, and participated in several AQIM terrorist attacks in Mauritania. (Read more...)

Jemal Oukacha (AKA Yahya Abu al-Hammam), the leader of the Sahara branch of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM), participated in an interview with the Mauritanian news agency al-Akhbar, discussing the group’s position on the Islamic State (IS), its relationship with Ansar Dine and the Macina Liberation Front, and its work to focus on targeting French interests.